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Putting a 1.48GHz Tualatin CPU in an Xbox
An anonymous reader writes "A stock Microsoft Xbox has a 733 MHz Intel CPU with 128KB L2 cache. On Valentine's Day, Friendtech will launch the DreamX-1480, a modified Xbox with a 1.48 GHz Tualatin-core CPU with 256KB L2 cache, promising better framerates and more stable network gaming. FiringSquad has the review."
If all of the games are designed for the stock hardware, is upgrading really going to make the slightest difference? Who cares about the framerate anyway? NTSC is only 60Hz interlaced refresh. Also, I'm pretty sure I heard about a company in Hong Kong that was already doing this.
And put in a better processor! How about an AMD Athlon 64 FX-51? Up the paltry 10 gig drive to a 72GB WD SATA Raptor... granted all this is gonna get pretty hot so it'd need a bigger case and some more fans. Oh, let's not forget a good modern video card.. maybe an NVidia GeForce FX 5900. Get rid of the goofy controller though while we're at it and repace it with a nice keyboard and trackball. Also, it should run the full version of Windows XP Pro. I wish someone would make a version of the X-Box with those specs. I'd buy it in a heartbeat!
You won't see 1 MB L1 caches, at least not in the forseeable future. The reason there is a memory hierarchy is to reduce access time due to address decoding and (especially) wire delays while keeping costs low since cache is expensive in terms of transistors... 1 MB is simply too large for the L1 to have a reasonable access time. L1 is performance critical, so a large L1 could hurt performance more than it helps, regardless of the hit rate. Plus, if you plan on implementing multiple processors (Xbox Next?), it may be a good idea to have inclusion (where data in L1 is guaranteed to also reside in L2) to shield the L1 from remote probe requests. This in turn means that your L2 should be much larger than your L1 (or else your L2 really doesn't serve much of a purpose).
As soon as this type of thing starts happening, you can kiss goodbye to the concept of consoles as being a set/fixed architecture. Say hello to tweaking your FPS/performance settings a'la PC gaming.. Might as well just buy a PC and stick windows on it because in the long run there aint going to be a lot of difference.
I dont want to have the inconvenience of sifting through games in a store to check if my console meets the minimum gaming requirements, and neither do a great deal of console gamers. I really dont like the sound of this at all.
I wonder what the opinion of a game developer would be on this one...
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Has anyone ever been sued into existence?
72GB WD SATA Raptor ~$100
NVidia GeForce FX 5900 ~$300
AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 ~$750
Making your little brother cry until he wets his pants because you owned him at Halo on your suped-up Xbox - Priceless